White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making
White-Collar Government: The Hidden Role of Class in Economic Policy Making
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白领政府：阶级在经济政策制定中的隐性作用
DOI：
10.7208/chicago/9780226087283.001.0001
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发表时间：
2013
影响因子：
6.8
通讯作者：
Nicholas Carnes
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Nicholas Carnes
在过去的12位总统中，有8位在就职时是百万富翁。在现任最高法院大法官中，这一比例超过50%，这9位大法官都毕业于哈佛或耶鲁。百万富翁还控制着国会，在那里，商业或法律背景是常态，众议院或参议院的平均成员在其成年生活中从事工人阶级工作的时间不到2%。为什么美国的大多数政客都比选举他们的人富裕得多——公民和他们的代表之间的社会阶级鸿沟重要吗？在《白领政府》一书中，尼古拉斯•卡恩斯响亮而又令人不安地回答了这个问题。他指出，立法者的社会经济背景不仅对他们如何看待问题，而且对他们在办公室做出的选择有深远的影响。工人阶级的代表性不足，几乎保证了政策制定过程将向有利于上层阶级的结果倾斜。最富有的美国人为富人设定税率，白领专业人士为蓝领工人选择最低工资，一直有医疗保险的人决定是否帮助那些没有医疗保险的人，这些都很重要。虽然没有一个原因导致这种代表危机，但卡恩斯表明，这个问题并非源于工人阶级中缺乏合格的候选人。他认为，解决办法必须涉及各种各样的变革，从竞选资金的均等化到各党派支持的候选人类型的转变。如果我们想要一个为人民服务的政府，我们必须开始努力建立一个真正由人民管理的政府。《白领政府》挑战了长期以来人们对美国政治不平等原因的看法，并探讨了有关代表权和政治问责制的持久问题。
Eight of the last twelve presidents were millionaires when they took office. The figure is above fifty percent among current Supreme Court justices, all nine of whom graduated from either Harvard or Yale. Millionaires also control Congress, where a background in business or law is the norm and the average member of the House or Senate has spent less than two percent of his or her adult life in a working-class job. Why is it that most politicians in America are so much better off than the people who elect them - and does the social class divide between citizens and their representatives matter? With White-Collar Government, Nicholas Carnes answers this question with a resounding - and disturbing - yes. Legislators' socioeconomic backgrounds, he shows, have a profound impact not only on how they view the issues but also on the choices they make in office. Scant representation from among the working class almost guarantees that the policymaking process will be skewed toward outcomes that favor the upper class. It matters that the wealthiest Americans set the tax rates for the wealthy, that white-collar professionals choose the minimum wage for blue-collar workers, and that people who have always had health insurance decide whether to help those without. And while there is no one cause for this crisis of representation, Carnes shows that the problem does not stem from a lack of qualified candidates from among the working class. The solution, he argues, must involve a variety of changes, from the equalization of campaign funding to a shift in the types of candidates the parties support. If we want a government for the people, we have to start working toward a government that is truly by the people. White-Collar Government challenges long-held notions about the causes of political inequality in the United States and speaks to enduring questions about representation and political accountability.